Wireless transceiver platform strengthens industrial connectivity

The OL2385 is based on a PIN-to-PIN compatible sub-GHz transceiver hardware platform and supports multiple wireless protocols such as Sigfox, W-MBus powered by Xemex and ZigBee IEEE 802.15.4.

The transceivers combine excellent RF performance with low-power consumption making it ideal for battery powered applications such as home and building automation, smart metering as well as asset tracking and monitoring. The platform is designed to shorten design cycles with NXP software stacks tested for standards compliance and delivered with pre-certified binaries. 

“Sigfox is pleased to have NXP Semiconductors join the ecosystem to provide our customers even more choice of software and hardware platforms,” said Tony Francesca, vice president of global ecosystem partners, Sigfox.

“The OL2385 reference design is Sigfox verified having very good performance with outstanding receive sensitivity. The new NXP transceivers are optimised solutions for global module manufacturers such as Innocomm to deliver ultra-low cost IoT modules that will fuel the IoT mass-market deployment.”

Andrew Chien, vice president of engineering, Innocomm added, “With our Sigfox verified modules based on the OL2385, we are able to shorten the IoT device maker development cycle significantly while providing connectivity to the Sigfox network globally.”

A two-way RF channel and common modulation schemes for networking applications allow the OL2385 family of transceivers to cover a full range of frequency bands from 160 to 960 MHz.

Its extended range radio operation is enabled with high sensitivity, up to -128 dBm, while its operation in congested environments is enhanced with 60 dB at 1 MHz of blocking performance and 60 dB of image rejection that is best in class by approximately 10 dB. Specifically, the challenges of radio compliance in more complex applications like W-MBus and ZigBee 868 have been addressed in this device.

Gert-Jan van den Hurk, CEO of Xemex noted, ”We have completed extensive testing of OL2385 for its suitability of W-MBus compliance and we confirmed that the OL2385 complies with the specification in the various modes, and that we can offer our W-MBus stack with the device.”

Additional platform features:

• 14 dbm Tx output power compliant with ETSI limits;
• Typical 29 mA transmit power consumption at full output power;
• Less than 11 mA receive power consumption;
• Excellent phase noise of -127 dBc at 1 MHz in the 868 and 915 MHz band for flexibility with external power amplifiers;
• Japanese ARIB T108 standard compliant.

Combined with Kinetis MCUs and LPC SDK pre-developed SPI/ UART drivers, the OL2385 is a solution that offers the broadest choice of ARM based MCUs with integrated peripherals on the market today, with fewer constraints:

• No fast polling on SPI compared to the simplest transceiver devices without integrated MCU;
• Network stack and optimised radio setup preconfigured for the standards supported.

The hardware and software for the OL2385 platform is provided in a one-stop-shop concept, with components supplied by NXP. The OL2385 platform samples and development boards with SIGFOX are available now through your sales representative. Mass production of pre-programmed parts are scheduled to start at the end of Q4/2017.

The W-MBus software is readily available for evaluation and IEEE802.15.4 compliant samples are expected to become available in Q2 2017. W-MBus and IEEE802.15.4 preprogrammed parts are scheduled to become available for mass market in the 2nd quarter of 2017.